Go­ing ga-ga over modern gad­gets

Well I, for one, am tick­led by this sud­den cold snap. Not only be­cause it should see off a few spi­ders, but I’ve got a brand new Nest ther­mo­stat and I am so in­fat­u­ated, it’s like hav­ing a new baby. If you don’t know, this is a dig­i­tal ther­mo­stat (de­signed by two for­mer Ap­ple em­ploy­ees), which you con­trol via an app. I turn the heat­ing up from my sofa with my phone. I wake with a cold nose and flick the heat­ing on with­out hav­ing to fling my du­vet back first. I warm my flat up when I’m 20 min­utes from home. I’m ob­sessed. I went to a one-yearold’s birth­day party at the week­end where there were 52 other one-yearolds and sev­eral par­ents look­ing smug about their off­spring. But I went home very hap­pily (a brief respite from tears). No nappy changes with a Nest.